Europe: Mortal Storm

It was 1 a.m. when the townspeople of the
north German port of Cuxhaven were startled from their sleep by an
eerie echo of the past: the wail of air-raid sirens. The howling horns,
however, did not signal an air attack but the breeching of the town's
dikes by one of the worst storms of the century.

Down the coast of Europe it screamed last week, leaving a trail of death
and disaster in its wake. Raging seas and roaring winds that reached a
velocity of 177 m.p.h. blitzed dikes, flooded cities, inundated farm...